Chiang Mai and Environs Travel Guide

Guidebooks

Chiang Mai, northern Thailand's cosmopolitan yet laid-back capital, has ambitious plans: it wants to expand beyond its role as a provincial city to become a gateway to Myanmar, Laos, and western China. Since the late 1990s, luxury hotels have been shooting up, attracting more business and leisure travelers. It is also bidding to become the site of the World Expo fair in 2020. The city's very attractive airport has been expanded to accommodate more and larger airplanes, and already there has been an increase in the number of direct flights from other cities in Asia. And although the country's main highway, Highway 1, bypasses Chiang Mai as it runs between Bangkok and Chiang Rai, officials have made sure the city is at the center of a spider's web of highways reaching out in all four directions of the compass, with no major city or town more than a day's drive away. Two ring roads, complete with underpasses, keep traffic flowing around the city center.

Hotels

Chiang Mai and Environs Hotels

Fears of a tourist slump due to soaring oil prices, a strong Thai currency, and political uncertainty failed to put the brakes on the hotel building boom...read more

Fodor's Choice

Restaurants

Chiang Mai and Environs Restaurants

All the city's top hotels serve reasonably good food, but for the best Thai cuisine go to the restaurants in town. The greatest variety—from traditional...read more

Fodor's Choice

Things To Do

Things To Do in Chiang Mai and Environs

The compact Old City can be explored easily on foot...read more

Travel Deals in Chiang Mai and Environs

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Chiang Mai and Environs Experiences

  • Back to School

    If spending time in monasteries makes you wonder about the lives of the monks, or if you find yourself so enthralled by delicious dishes that... Read more

  • The History of Chiang Mai

    Chiang Mai's rich history stretches back 700 years to the time when several small tribes, under King Mengrai, banded together to form a new nation... Read more

  • Monk Chat

    If you're like most people, a visit to Chiang Mai's numerous temples is likely to leave you full of unanswered questions. Head to Wat Suan Dok... Read more

  • Northern Thailand Then and Now

    As late as 1939, northern Thailand was a semiautonomous region of Siam, with a history rich in tales of kings, queens, and princes locked in... Read more

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